s needed."

He scowled when I mentioned Thorgils, but he knew him by repute at
least, and was willing to trust him, as I would do so. In the end,
therefore, it was he who took the signet ring and the letter the
prince had written and brought back the gold. Some of the coins
were of the days of Cunobelin, but the most of it was in bars and
rings and chains, wrought for traffic by weight.

Now I will say at once that neither of my comrades would share in
this ransom, though I thought that it was a matter between the
three of us, as leaders of the force that day.

"Not I," quoth Thorgils--"the man was your own private captive, for
you sent him down yourself. What do I want with that pile of gold?
I have enough and to spare already, and I should only hoard it. Or
else I should just give it back to you for a wedding present by and
by. What? Shaking your head? Well, what becomes of all my songs if
they end not in a wedding? Have a care, Oswald, and see that you
make up your mind in time."

So he went away, laughing at me, but afterward I did make him
promise that if he needed a new ship at any time he would tell me,
so that I might give him one for the sake of the first voyage in
the old vessel, and that pleased him well.

Now I told Ina this, being always accustomed to refer anything to
him, and he was not surprised to hear that the Norseman would not
take the gold.

"And if I may advise," he said, "I would not offer a share to
Erpwald; for, in the first place, he does not expect it, seeing
that the captive is yours only, by all right of war; and in the
next, he deems that you have already given him Eastdean, and he is
not so far wrong. So it would hurt him. He will be all the happier
now that he will know that you have withal to buy four Eastdeans,
if you will."

So against my will, as it were, that day made a rich man of me.
Presently I gave the wealth into the hand of Herewald the
ealdorman, and he so managed it, being a great trader in his way,
that it seemed to grow somewise, and I have a yearly sum therefrom
in ways that are hard to be understood by me, but which seem simple
enough to him.

I handed over Mordred to the Norsemen to keep until Thorgils
returned with the ransom, for before we could rest with the sword
in its scabbard again it was needful that all care should be taken
for the holding of the new land we had won, and Ina would see to
that himself. Here and there we had fighting, but the Welsh nev